MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russian scientists support a proposal by former US Vice President Al Gore to nominate the creators of the International Space Station for a Nobel Peace Prize, a Russian academician said Tuesday.
“Al Gore has approached the Russian Space Agency [Roscosmos] with a proposal to nominate the ISS, meaning those who created it, for the peace prize,” academician Lev Zeleny told the presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“Roscosmos asked us to support this proposal,” said Zeleny, a vice president of the academy.
The scientist explained that the nomination would include as one body all space agencies and organizations that take part in the ISS project.
The ISS is a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit that was launched in 1998 and is still being expanded by adding new modules to its structure.
It is a joint project between five participating space agencies: the American NASA, the Russian Roscosmos, the Japanese JAXA, the European ESA and the Canadian CSA.
The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields. The station is also suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for future missions to other planets.
The service life of the current orbital station ends in 2015, but it is expected to be extended until at least 2020, and potentially to 2028.
NASA has called the ISS “an anchor for the future of human space exploration.”
